I'm in my 50s now and have had chronic acne since I was about 12 years old. I went to multiple dermatologists for about 35 years and was prescribed the usual antibiotics and topical treatments, which were mostly ineffective. The only thing that worked well for me was Accutane, which I was on for 4 courses of treatment. I finally decided to stop taking Accutane because of the strong side-effects and because I was worried about the effects of taking it long-term.

For many years, I had suspected that my acne was food-related, but was always told by my doctors that it was not the case. About 5 years ago, I gradually began to identify which foods caused acne outbreaks in me and the resulting list is long: dairy, peppers, chocolate, peanuts, tree nuts, caffeine, avocado, turmeric, fried foods, toasted rice. There is no treatment for food allergies and the only recourse is to avoid those foods. For me, dairy and pepper are the hardest foods to avoid because they are ingredients in so many foods. Sometimes, pepper is not even listed as an ingredient even though it is present. I've had food allergy testing done on the above items, but found that the tests came back negative, so I am not allergic to those foods in the traditional medical sense. Yet every time I ingest those foods, I have acne breakouts.

I recently consulted a nutritionist about this and she suspects I have leaky guy syndrome caused by antibiotics and years of poor eating. Yet my teenage daughter has acne caused by some of the same foods, so I am doubtful about that diagnosis. Fortunately, my daughter's acne is not as severe as mine yet, but I am afraid it will get worse.